Tie gives Centaurs postseason berth

KILLINGLY — A tie generally leaves both teams a little frustrated, but on Wednesday night at Killingly High School, it was actually a case where both teams left, at least, half-happy.

Woodstock Academy and the host Redmen were both teetering on the edge of making the state tournament coming into the match, both needed either a win or a tie and neither could afford a loss,

The scoreless tie between the two meant that the Centaurs (6-9-1) qualified for the postseason.

“We’re in the state tournament and we get to play another day,” said Woodstock coach Jared Morse. “I think we should be in the state tournament every year. I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s not hard to get into the state tournament. You only need to win 40 percent and we’re going to get into the state tournament with a below .500 record. It’s good for the boys because they get to play another game, but we still have a lot to work on.”

Work to do

Killingly (4-8-3) still has a little work to do, it needs a win tonight in Putnam to qualify for the postseason. But unlike Morse, Killingly coach Ron Frechette thinks his team, due to the fact that it played in the Medium Division this season, may be a little more sound than his last two teams, both of which qualified for the tournament.

“The four seniors up top found a way to put the ball in the net (last year), this group is much better playing the ball technically,” Frechette said. “I think you saw stretches of that (Wednesday). We wouldn’t have done that last year. They were good, but we weren’t playing the caliber of teams on a regular basis and I think we’ve done a good job with this.”

The Centaurs had the better of the play, but their offense, which has produced only 22 goals in 16 games, couldn’t find the back of the net.

Morse was most concerned about his team’s inability to note that they were playing into Killingly’s hands. In the first half, the Centaurs would dribble the ball down the field and wait to shoot until they got it into the box. That was more than fine with the Redmen.

“Every time we got it into the box, like to take a shot, it was just so crowded,” Woodstock senior forward Chandapaul Hamilton said.

Killingly yielded much of the field through most of the first half, but regained the midfield late in the first half and got a few chances.

“We were hoping to get more offensive shots, but we did what we could do,” Killingly senior back Kyle Bulmer said.

Page 2 of 2 - Few chances

Shots by Tyler Daley and Sean Guerin challenged Woodstock keeper Conor Hanlon (five saves) but he made the stops.

He didn’t have to worry about that in the second half as Woodstock made an adjustment suggested by Morse at halftime — attack on the wings and try to force Killingly out.

“We were trying to go forward, but the speed of (Hamilton and Bruno Maluf) playing on the edges and doing everything and we had to drop the wide-mid(fielder) to support. That’s what we did” Frechette said.

Woodstock outshot the Redmen 9-2 in the second half and had a couple of nice chances including one in the second overtime off the foot of Zach Morin that was just knocked away by Bulmer.

“It was literally inches, I just kicked it out in the last second,” Bulmer said. “It was terrifying.”

Now, the Redmen have to beat the Clippers (3-10-2) on their Senior night at the St. Marie-Greenhalgh Field.

“This makes it very important to us, it’s another town rivalry as far as the school is concerned — the guys mark these kind of things,” Frechette said. “If you take look at our track record over the last five or six years, we’re not necessarily good guests on Senior night.”